Variance bites back HARD

I just failed to cash in 12 straight STTs. TWELVE. At least 10 of those I was eliminated when I went in as a favorite. Those games are full of the biggest idiots imaginable and I failed to cash TWELVE straight times. I'm not sure that is even mathematically possible. Just plain "wow" to what variance can do. Currently have played 171 of the $3.80 super turbos and have broken even for the last 62 game span thanks to shit like this.

A new cash cow

Those $3.80 Super Turbo shortstack tournaments on Full Tilt might not be real poker, but DAMN are they lucrative. Since my last post I have played a total of 101 of these, to the exclusion of all the other styles, and have had an ROI of around 33%. I think that is easily sustainable as well since I have such an obvious skill edge over all the fish who splash about in them. I saw somebody limp/call an all-in with 6-4 suited earlier. Do these people have no brain? Trapping with 6 high for Christ's sake!!! They have money to waste though, and I'm happy to line my pockets with it. It is a grind, but they are very time-efficient and you can rattle off a lot of them, and the money just rolls in. Seriously, if I played them 40 hours per week I could probably scrape a living off them. That's a pretty crazy thought.

I have started to pick up on a few of the skilled players who play these (they stand out a mile for obvious reasons) and try to avoid them... there are so many games going on, the tables fill within seconds, so it's not hard to find a game without a solid SNG endgame player in. But I have enjoyed playing against them as well. The highlight of my day today was folding 1010 pre-flop on the 2nd hand against a guy called TheFrenkel, one of the decent regulars (his Sharkscope bore out my assessment). There is always a shove on the first few hands, often with any ace, any pair or any two face cards even. Well this Frenkel guy open-shoved from UTG+1, and I am sat behind him with 1010. I snap call this against anybody else at the table and just have to dodge the ace usually, but this guy's shoving range was almost certainly similar to mine (from UTG+1 I'd be shoving AJ+, 99+ I think), and against that I am never ahead by much and sometimes behind, so despite having a big hand I folded. Some div called in the blinds with KJ (obv) and Frenkel showed QQ. I was damn pleased with myself.

Quick update

Not really had as much time to devote to the game as I would like recently, so my sample sizes are small, but so far I have played 6 of the $15+1 Stars 9-man SNGs and had a 1st and two 3rds for a 27% ROI. I'm still a little unsure whether I am properly bankrolled for these, so I'm not playing more than two at a time, which is a bit of a waste I suppose but it should keep a higher per-game win-rate at least. Hopefully soon I can start to 4-table happily and without bankroll concerns holding me back, then I'll have a proper sample size to judge my results.

I have also played a handful of $3.80 Super Turbos on Full Tilt (yes, despite my saying I withdrew all my money I actually didn't take it ALL off... I took most of it off, and the rest will likely follow next time I have a decent sized purchase on my credit card that needs paying off). These are crazy, you get 300 chips and start at 15/30 blinds, so it is shove or fold lolz. Of course there are morons who don't grasp this and limp/fold or limp/call as normal, but really there is never any decision after pre-flop (unless you have junk in the big blind and nobody raises). Most of the people on Cardplayer who have tried these are reporting good results, so I had a bash earlier and played 4, winning 2 of them for a 100+% ROI!!!! (did someone say "small sample size" again? Quit bursting my bubble!!!). The problem is, these games are dangerously addictive, and I can feel they might start to creep into my game selection in the near future more than they should... I hope they don't mess up my real poker.

MTTs are still mis-firing, although I'm playing fine. I mis-click folded AA today though for the first time; I was clicking in another browser window when my table popped up and my cursor just happened to be exactly where the "fold" button was :( I'd been shoving like a maniac too, I'm sure my shove would have got action. Sucks but hey.

Running normalaments

Ok, not to jinx anything but I seem to be running normally again... I'm not getting constantly sucked out on and am even pulling the odd suckout off myself. I've started playing the $15+1 STTs on Stars, although I am a little concerned whether I should be with just $400 in my Stars roll. Having said that, I cashed out from Tilt for $630 so there is a little more in my roll than is actually online at the moment, and the play in these things is really pretty ordinary to be polite. I've bumped into a handful of solid multi-tabling TAG regulars who obviously "get" SNG play and are tough opponents, but really despite being 3x the stakes the games feel just as soft as the $5.50 games I used to play on Full Tilt and crush for something like 40% ROI.

It feels nice to actually be winning money again. After two bustos in these games last night I ummed and ahhed about playing another and decided to go for it... and took it down. I had a nice suckout to set me rolling when my AK beat KK, and then I took out another two players with the same hand when one guy went nuts preflop with 77 and a shortie decided his two baby cards were probably live and he was getting great pot odds... King on the flop and I have a nice chip lead. Gets even better just after when I raise the cut-off with JJ and the big blind calls then donk shoves into me on a 4h-7-7h board... shows down 66 for lolgoodgameaments. At this point I have over half the chips in play on the bubble, and just crush the table for a bit. It was a perfect spot to have a big stack because the others were all fairly similar so all had an eye on each other and pretty much gave up playing pots with me without a huge hand. I think 5 or 6 consecutive orbits they gave me free rides in the big blind, and I never got played back at when I stole. I burst the bubble myself when I called a shove with A10o and the guy had Q10o which was just about perfect for me, and then promptly doubled up one of the others by running a Q6o steal into 1010. He used his chips to bust the other player and we went heads up. I figured it was going to be yet another "so near yet so far" game when I 3-bet shoved over him with KQo and he called with Q4s, only to nail a flush. So gay. But I wore him down again, being very aggressive, and it set it up perfectly when I got AKs and shoved on him and he called with A10o. He flopped a 10 but I turned a flush and all was well with the world again. OFFICIALLY A WINNING PLAYER ON POKERSTARS!!!!

ZOMG I sucked out on someone!!!!11!

http://www.pokerhandreplays.com/view.php/id/18724

I still didn't cash though. Just not enough decent hands, had to shove K4 from the button when I got low and ran into an Ace. Boo-urns.

The $4.40 180 man games do seem pretty beatable though.

My Pokerstars debut

It was a bit of a washout actually. I played the $10k guarantee with a $5 buy-in, field of ~4400, and I worked out all the options menus and changed the table skin to some sleek new black background they are Beta testing so it looks a lot better than the mustard shit they set as default... and then I sat card-dead for an hour, until I picked up AQ just before the break with a 25BB stack, and opted to 3-bet shove over a 4BB opening raise. He showed 10-10 and predictably I lost the race. Sound familiar? It actually doesn't bother me though, whereas if it had happened on Full Tilt I would have been cursing the heavens. It's an interesting one, psychologically. I think of it as being like rain; when I am at home, doing my boring everyday things, rain is a nuisance and can really piss me off (it's been fucking WET with capital letters in Manchester lately)... but when I'm on holiday somewhere else and it rains, it just feels vaguely comical. I remember getting caught in a crazy tropical storm in Havana once, but everyone in my tourist group found it funny for the novelty. I guess we are more carefree when we are vacationing, or something. And I kind of feel like I am vacationing on Pokerstars at the moment, although I plan on playing there as long as it suits me, so I guess nothing will bother me for the short term no matter how bad I run.

I plan on playing one of the "First Depositor" freerolls later on, they gave me a couple of entries into those when I deposited, along with a $50 bonus I probably won't play enough to clear lolz.

Standard of play so far is questionable at best... the tourny I played began with 150BB effective stacks, which was a very pleasant surprise to me (although they make up for it by jumping the blinds by greater amounts when they rise it), but that is wasted on some people as there were two ninnies at my table who open-shoved for 150BBs twice each. Just cut a hole in the bottom of your wallet already guys, jayzus. Wish I could have been dealt some cards, because these guys were trying to give it away. I'm sure there are a lot of players that bad though... I've heard people say Stars players are worse than Full Tilt ones, which would be a nice bonus. I also look forward to checking out the $4.40 180-man SNGs that people on Cardplayer have said are extremely soft and full of brain-dead people on day release from their hospital beds.

Tilt is dead

Seriously, Full Tilt isn't rigged. But it sure feels like it lately. Two more all-ins that I lost from ahead today (first time I've felt up to the anal raping of poker recently) and I need a change of scene. So I've finally made a deposit on Pokerstars... I've given myself a roll of just over $400 on there to begin with, and am about to cash out the remaining ~$630 of my Full Tilt roll back to my credit card and wash my hands of the site, in the short term at least. Maybe I will use my Player Points to order something from the site as well... I was trying to save them for something half decent, but I guess I can probably get a cap or some sunglasses or something cheap and cheerful from them.

So I'm looking forward to the change of scenery. Having said that, my first impression of Pokerstars skin is that it couldn't be any worse... there's a weird clicking sound constantly going on, and the colours are just puke-worthy. But then I remember feeling that way about most interfaces I have used when I first began on other sites, so I'll grin and bear it and eventually not even notice it any more I'm sure.

Since I signed up under the name "RonaldRais'n" (with an avatar of Ronald Reagan looking gormless), then I guess that means I am no longer TheAlbinoKid. That does sadden me actually, I like the way that name straddles the grey area between sounding cool and sounding stupid... but I wanted a comedy President-related name for some reason when I signed up at Stars a while back (I've had an account a few months but never deposited). George W Flush was taken though, and Theodore Raisevelt was too long, so I ended up with something a bit crappy that sounded good at the time, and really wish I had just stuck with TheAlbinoKid... but a fresh start is a fresh start, right?

Cash games are not my thing

I really wish they were, but it doesn't seem to be. I am now officially a losing PLO cash player, and while I haven't kept detailed stats over the years on my NLHE cash play I suspect I am a marginally losing player in that too. I'm not really sure what the problem(s) is/are.

Tournament play still sucks balls as well, although I still have faith in my game in that format. I thought I was going to cash for the first time in a week last night when I lasted ok in an Omaha Hi donkament, but then I bubbled when I flopped middle set on an A93 rainbow board only to find some knobhead had open-limped an AAxx hand and flopped the only hand that I was behind.

Someone please make it be over.

Vicarious living

My poker life has been slow recently, due to various commitments I have only managed to log 12 SNGs and a couple of short-lived donkaments in recent days (+43% ROI in the SNGs though)... I am not hating the game as much though, and I consider that a valuable bit of progress. So this post is really to wish the best of luck to the posters at http://forums.cardplayer.com/forums who are playing in the World Series of Poker Main Event... I believe there are 3 of them, Loretta, Lucko and Lucko's girlfriend LJ (see linked blogs on the right), and I believe they all registered to begin play today (Day 1c). Best of luck to them all, let's hope at least one (hopefully two) can make it through to Day 2 and then beyond!

AQ in Sit-n-Gos

Ok, I have only played 4 SNGs since yesterday (2 wins, a 3rd and a bubble) but already my old bogey hand of AQ pre-flop at low/middle blinds has come up again. Well, when I say bogey hand that is probably not the right term... what I mean is, I am caught in two minds (maybe more) about how best to play it.

Originally when I began playing SNGs and did very well, I was very aggressive with it and this approach had a lot of success by 3-betting and 4-bet shoving this hand; I found enough people willing to go to the wire with AJ, A10 and medium pocket pairs that my approach seemed to be +EV to me. But then I took some of the advice from the SNG section of the Cardplayer forum, where many players seem to fold AQ to 3-bets early on, and started playing it much more cautiously, with the result that I was raise/folding pre-flop an awful lot and having to fold to c-bets on whiffed flops even more often, and I was leaking chips as a result. My results dipped noticeably.

So now I am of a mind to return to my previous aggressive approach with AQ pre-flop; my experience of the range of hands people will call my shoves with when 4-bet over is obviously vastly different to the posters on the forum, so I am left in the agonising scenario of having to either a) ignore all my own experience and learnings and trust to the experience of others instead even though it conflicts with mine, or b) ignore well-thought out advice from a selection of experienced and reasonably successful players who specialise in this format. Neither option really sounds very appealing when you lay it out like that. But all in all I think I have a slight preference for failing in my own way, since I have already briefly tried and failed by doing it the other way previously. This might be down to variance, but it also might not.

The hand that prompted this post can be found posted here, along with responses:

http://forums.cardplayer.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=63980

I titled it a "standard" hand, knowing full well that many of them would want to open-fold it pre-flop* and would think my line was spewy and not at all standard, and there are already the nitty voices speaking of how we should fold to the re-raise at this early blind level. They sound convincing, but I have made more by 4-betting than by folding, I am positive.

Gah. This is why poker is such a great game though. Even experienced and highly competent players can disagree on what is optimal. Put me in mind of "Caro's theory of loose wiring" that he speaks about in his classic "Caro's Book Of Poker Tells", where he illustrates two different example hands where the cards dealt to each player and on every street are identical but the end result in terms of winner, pot size and which players were in the hand are very different, because some of the players play their hand differently but plausibly from one example to the next. (The rest of the book is pretty outdated now to be honest, but it was classic at the time). I don't really know where I am going with this, but it popped into my head so I wrote it. I think I'll just let this post trail off quietly...

* hyperbole for comic effect, obv :)

Sit'n'Gogogogogo

Played 2 $5 SNGs just now and won them both; it appears my idea has some merit that the poker gods approve of. I didn't actually have many flips, but my small edges held... Ax hands held off Kx hands all-in pre-flop, and I sucked out goooooood on the bubble of one of them when I shoved 67s in the small blind and someone made an idiot call out of the big blind with K8o (if you don't get why it was an idiot call, go and learn ICM now), and I flopped two pair and filled up on the turn. It's always nice to make an hourly rate of ~$30.

Poker seems fun again. Shame I have to go out to play tennis later this evening or I would embrace the $5 donkfests whole-heartedly (I have solved my anger issues on the court by the way... now I simply just hit balls around and don't care where they go. They seem to mostly go in the right places still, so it's working out fine!). Also, there is a strong possibility of a new job on the horizon, which would force me to keep slightly more regular hours than I do now and thus limit my hours on Full Tilt, but it would also allow me to put some more money towards my bankroll than the pittance I have been able to afford it so far, so maybe my poker 'career' will benefit overall, who knows.

Back from the abyss

Ok, so after one final bad beat at my live donkament last Thursday (guy called my shove with KJo on a 10-8-3 rainbow board, I had QQ, he rivered a K), I stopped playing. I really wasn't in the right mindset to play any tournaments... I realised I was playing too many hands too early, on the basis that if I was going to get shafted by the dealer then better to have it happen early before I had wasted too much of my time, and obviously that attitude is not conducive to winning poker. I still feel like poker isn't worth investing too much time in, but am wanting to play again, so as a result I am contemplating returning to the single table Sit-n-Gos for a while.

This is my current SNG results "snake" -

I played these from January to April as my standard fare, and did consistently well (Sharkscope lists me with a 38% ROI at an average stake of $5)... it really helped to grind my bankroll up. But they are a very dry form of poker, you feel almost robotic when playing them... you sit tight early and only play premium hands, and then you go nutso near the bubble and steal like crazy when the blinds are bigger. A lot of people would say it isn't even poker, which is a short-sighted view but I can totally understand why they would say it. The skill-set required is very different from an MTT, let alone "real" poker (ie. cash games), but it is a game of skill nonetheless. I'm not sure I will play them for long, because even a hot streak at Sit-n-Gos doesn't compare to the thrill of going deep in a large(ish) MTT field, but maybe the fact that they rarely last more than an hour will stop me from getting impatient... also, when I have my feel back I should be able to multi-table them more easily than I do with cash games or MTTs.

Higher stakes, lower skills

Today I played the $11.5k guarantee on Full Tilt with my lone token I had saved. I had foolishly assumed the play would be better than I was used to, but after I lost 1/3 of my stack to a guy who called a raise pre-flop with 10-2s and lost almost all the rest of the chips when my KK got limp/re-raised all-in from someone with 88 and he made quads (rest of my chips went next hand when my A7 lost to A6, obviously). All my good correct folds were followed by flops that hit my freshly mucked hand full in the face, and everyone else's bad calls were rewarded. It's just horrible. And what is even worse is that I am whining about it, which I hate doing because I know I shouldn't care; it happens to everybody and I am not being especially unlucky, and frankly it must be dull to read about. But when every tournament the last week+ has been this way, what else can I write here? If anyone was reading this blog, I really wouldn't blame them for not bothering any more given recent post quality.

Tuesday Ramblerments

The only game I have played since my last entry was the Tuesday night Rambler series event... given my new-found love(/hate) for Omaha the idea of a HA (lol at Full Tilt not wanting to call it a HO game) tournament was appealing enough for me to stay up for the 2am start time. There was a better turn out than previous weeks since the basketball is over now (I think, I don't follow it because it's full of oversized freaks), 2 full tables I think. I went out in 7th, in predictable fashion... losing a race to Loretta with AJ v 66. Was teased by a flop which gave me 18 outs twice, but he was running so well he was 90% favorite to win every flip and 75% favorite to win when he was well behind :( The one that hurt more was in an earlier Omaha level, where I got rivered with AcAsQs4h all-in pre-flop against KhKcJc10c (65-35 favorite orly?) - if I had won that I'd have been top 3 in chips, losing it put me bottom 2 and took all my momentum away. My hand actually got stronger and stronger on every street; flopped an ace, turn gave me a flush draw to kill all but 4 of villain's outs, but 4 outs is enough to bend me over and intrude upon my anal passage these days.

Nice tournament though, anyone reading this who doesn't already know about the series should check out http://nyramblerpoker.blogspot.com for details... next week is PLO8, which appeals to me but at the same time is a game that I suck at, so I will be there providing dead money and just trying to suck out on everyone.

The run continues

So poker is still sucking pretty badly. Last night saw my net profits from PLO reduced to almost zero, and today the only game I played was the $10 MSOP event where I ran predictably badly. I wasn't going to play at all, except maybe a $2 game or two, but the chance to play for a $30k prize pool for just a $10 buy-in doesn't come along very often. Sadly, I ran JJ into KK early on an all-unders flop against a guy who had already shown down K5s (raised it UTG obv) and A9o (cold-called a 3-bet pre-flop and shoved the flop with air), so he almost never has a real hand... unless he is in the pot with me of course. Then my short-stack disappeared after I shoved AJ over what looked a standard steal and he turned over JJ. What the fuck can I do?

So poker is highly unenjoyable at the moment... to everyone who says that making the correct play is its own reward, and every time you do that you win money regardless of the hand outcome, I say "Die in a grease fire please". Yes, it all evens itself out, I know. But I play poker primarily because I enjoy it; the fact I am good enough to be a winning player and therefore take it more seriously than most is a happy by-product. But when you take regular beats, run into regular coolers and lose 3/4 of your 50-50s (even more so against opponents who have you covered), then the fun kind of evaporates from it all.

I need a few days off. I just took a month off because bad running was tilting me though, I only hit the tables again at the end of May, it seems a waste. I am truly torn whether to play through or not.

What goes up...

Since my 2nd place on Wednesday I have run like shit. I can't win a race to save my life in a tournament, and I lost most of the profit I have made playing PLO today when everyone's draws hit against me after we were all in with me having a 60-40/65-35 edge. Boo-urns.

I thought was I about to overcome it all by a deep run in the Early Double again, but just busted out in 97th, which although it paid is actually a loss when you consider I played both the Double tournaments. Other one I busted early when I lost with AKo all-in pre-flop against QQ, and this one I shoved over a raise with KQs and lost a flip with 88. Dealer teased me too, hitting my queen on the turn only to deliver the 2-outer on the river. Yeah, I know it's not really a 2-outer, but it did give me a rye smile. I never really got going, I think I only stayed alive so long by careful stealing and nobody wanting to raise my big blind... I've never had so many free passes in a tournament, it was unreal. On the other hand, I hardly had any hands worthy of mention.

Full Tilt roll is now around $770. I wants it be bigger still :(

Live games = limp games IMO

So I did play the donkament MTT last night as expected... it is run by a firm called Poker Results UK, and is part of a miniature "tour" of sorts around the North West of England. I would give more details for any Brits reading this, except that to be honest I wouldn't really recommend the games... buy-in is £15+2.5, starting stack is 2000 chips with 25/50 blinds, so stacks start shallow and shrink every 15 minutes after that. Typically, unless I find a big hand early, I will find myself down to ~10 big blinds within two orbits, so yes, the game structure pretty much sucks. I have taken a decent amount of money here in the past (my net profit for games run by this company is £395), but some bad running around March really tilted me at the structure and I have hardly played there since.

So anyway, I went back and nothing had changed. We had 26 runners, and I busted out in about 13th or 14th gambling for a HUGE stack. I had recently picked up some hands and played them very aggressively (AA doubled up when someone limped QJo pre-flop and called my shove, and KK shoved over a raise to take the pot down); this put me up among the bigger stacks left in the game with 7200 (200/400 level, so M is only 12 obv!). My constant shoving was tilting some of the players pretty hard, they all like to limp limp limp and see cheap flops, and the general consensus at the table was that my shoves, which were typically for 9 or 10 big blinds over a couple of limpers pre-flop, where excessive overbets!!! I didn't bother breaking the news to them that there IS no post-flop play in a game structured this badly, let's not disillusion them.

Onwards to my demise. There is a limp from UTG obviously, and I crank it up to 2400 with AK intending to call a shove. A short stack calls himself all-in, and the original limper umms and ahhs for a while, clearly frustrated at this donkey who just raises all the time when he limps. In the end he shoved, and I snap-called. It was unfortunate that he was the only stack at the table that had me covered, but so be it... if I win this pot I have around half the chips in play with 12 still remaining.

He showed down 88 (was hoping for a weaker ace, very much in his limping range, but oh well) and the shorty had K10s. All the overcards whiffed and the 88 held, gg me. That's poker I guess, I was happy with how I played the whole game. Overall, the standard was only moderately bad lolololol. Not sure I will be going back much, but might do from time to time - the buy-in is a little more than I would like to pay regularly for a glorified crapshoot though.

In other news, when browsing http://www.officialpokerrankings.com/ today I found I had achieved a minor goal of mine and broken into the top 5% of online MTT players according to their rating system (whatever that may be) -

Not really significant, but nice to know that if you sat me down with 19 other randomly selected online players the chances are I would be the best one there. Egos need stroking sometimes!

Bankroll boost!

I should talk about how nothing is really happening at the tables more often, because yesterday's post was followed by a very nice 2nd place finish in a $5 MTT... 207 runners, made for a profit of ~$165 for me. The re-cap will be relatively short, because basically I got hit by the deck and almost every hand was utterly standard; the only decisions I really had to make before the final table were ones about bet-sizing and whether or not to c-bet some flops.

From the first orbit onwards I was never outside the top 10 in chips - within the first 30-40 minutes I had seen KK twice (once won pot on flop, once doubled up through 99 all-in pre-flop), QQ twice (once won pot on flop, once flopped top set and stacked KK who failed to shove over my 3-bet pre-flop) and JJ once (flopped middle set and was called down to the end for a nice pot). When things are flowing like that, poker is a very easy game, and I really did coast into the final table. I had dropped to something like 6/10, but then KK came back and I doubled through against 1010 all-in pre-flop to begin the final table 3rd in chips.

The final table was a little strange in that everybody was inexplicably showing their hands after people folded. I don't get it, and needless to say I didn't join in. I managed to just pick up chips slowly without any real big hands or big pots. I tried to attack more than I often do, and to take the bull by the horns... when monotone flops appeared I really piled the pressure onto people a couple of times and induced some folds for good pots. I felt totally bad-ass for a change, it was fun! I also had a big let-off here 5-handed when the chip leader somehow failed to knock me out (sorry, the hand replayer website is being stupid on me, my browser is telling me it doesn't exist) -

$5 + $0.50 Tournament (52177821), Table 4 - 1000/2000 Ante 250 - No Limit Hold'em
Seat 4: TheAlbinoKid (56,867)
Seat 5: bluffmaster78 (130,749)
Seat 6: juanjo37 (23,957)
Seat 8: Finney777 (59,553)
Seat 9: thebishop333 (39,374)
TheAlbinoKid antes 250
bluffmaster78 antes 250
juanjo37 antes 250
Finney777 antes 250
thebishop333 antes 250
TheAlbinoKid posts the small blind of 1,000
bluffmaster78 posts the big blind of 2,000
The button is in seat #9
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to TheAlbinoKid [Kc Kh]
juanjo37 folds
Finney777 folds
thebishop333 folds
TheAlbinoKid raises to 8,000
FatSquirrel520 (Observer): albino4thewin (this guy was in the middle of venting because he just got knocked out when 88<77, he seemed to think I was the only non-donk left; good eye for talent, obviously!)
bluffmaster78 calls 6,000
*** FLOP *** [Qd Ac Qs]
TheAlbinoKid checks
bluffmaster78 checks
*** TURN *** [Qd Ac Qs] [4h]
TheAlbinoKid checks
bluffmaster78 checks
*** RIVER *** [Qd Ac Qs 4h] [7h]
TheAlbinoKid checks
bluffmaster78 bets 8,000
TheAlbinoKid calls 8,000
*** SHOW DOWN ***
bluffmaster78 shows [Qc As] a full house, Queens full of Aces
TheAlbinoKid mucks
bluffmaster78 wins the pot (33,250) with a full house, Queens full of Aces

How are we not all-in pre-flop? And once he flops a full house, how does he fail to get any more than 8000 chips out of me? I guess I chose the right time to not c-bet the flop; anybody play this hand differently in my shoes?

I made it to the last 3 but my stack had dwindled... I had about 44,000 at the 1200/2400+300 level, about 1/7th of the chips in play. But the guy in 2nd picked a very bad time to hustle me (1 guess what hand I had when he tried it!), and we swapped stacks pretty much -

$5 + $0.50 Tournament (52177821), Table 4 - 1200/2400 Ante 300 - No Limit Hold'em
Seat 4: TheAlbinoKid (45,417)
Seat 5: bluffmaster78 (145,949)
Seat 8: Finney777 (119,134)
TheAlbinoKid antes 300
bluffmaster78 antes 300
Finney777 antes 300
Finney777 posts the small blind of 1,200
TheAlbinoKid posts the big blind of 2,400
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to TheAlbinoKid [Kd Kc]
bluffmaster78 folds
Finney777 calls 1,200
TheAlbinoKid raises to 8,400
Finney777 raises to 118,834, and is all in (limp re-raise ORLY?)
TheAlbinoKid calls 36,717, and is all in
Finney777 shows [3d Kh]
TheAlbinoKid shows [Kd Kc]
Uncalled bet of 73,717 returned to Finney777
*** FLOP *** [9c 8h Qd]
*** TURN *** [9c 8h Qd] [2s]
*** RIVER *** [9c 8h Qd 2s] [5s]
Finney777 shows King Queen high
TheAlbinoKid shows a pair of Kings
TheAlbinoKid wins the pot (91,134) with a pair of Kings

Finney then got busted, leaving me heads-up with around a 2.5:1 chip disadvantage. Heads-up is probably the biggest leak in my game to be honest, I really struggle to find the right level of aggression and bluff frequency against my opponents, so it is no surprise to me that I couldn't overcome this deficit. In fact, heads-up only lasted 3 hands (two of which I was all-in on - I was taking the hyper-aggressive route!), and ended when I had KQo and we built a decent pot pre-flop, then my opponent shoved a A-K-7 flop and I made a call which may or may not have been bad and couldn't suck out when he showed down A10s. No matter, it was nice to not run badly when the big pay increases are happening for a change :)

I am toying with the idea of playing live tonight at a home-game style donkament that I played in once a week from August to February; would be the first time I played there in a few months. The game structure is bad, which is the chief reason I stopped playing despite having turned a healthy profit there, but fuck it, I think I probably will go just for the social aspect of it. The play is awful, so I could quite possibly make a profit with my eyes closed anyway. Stand by for some HIDEOUS held hands!!!

Time to stereotype :)

Not much of interest to write about poker-wise lately... I had my first losing session of PLO last night, all my big draws missed and I whiffed a lot of flops. All told, since my final table in the Early Double last week my roll has dropped about $13. Big news, I don't think. So in lieu of a strategy post or tournament recap, here is the first post in the "Albino rankings of crappy poker players" series. First category grouped by - nationality :)

5th worst - UK. Yes, most of us Brits are horrible players with an excessive love of the gambooool. It is somewhat amusing that many of the Brits who play poker are the kind who hang around betting shops all day and have a foolproof "system" to pick horses, yet they have no real system to win consistently at poker, a game that CAN actually be beaten by well-thought-out strategy.

=4th worst - Austria/Italy. I haven't played with many Austrians, but those I have played with (mostly in the STTs during my down time at work) don't seem to have much idea what they are doing. Italians just can't resist making outrageous bluffs, even though much of the time they seem semi-competent. And they tilt outrageous if they ever get a beat. Fiery Latin temperament I suppose, but the net result is their family cornetto businesses are in danger of being gambled away online.

3rd worst - Germany. You would think the most organised nation in the world would be very good at poker; great discipline, almost robotic in the way they make +EV play after +EV play. But no, it seems that the poker tables are where Germans cast off the shackles of unwieldy stereotypes and let loose in a frenzy of donkishness, as if to try and prove to the world that they too are human beings, not machines, and that they are playing for fun, because they are fun-loving people. I don't buy it, but if it helps them sleep at night then I'll take their money and good luck to them.

2nd worst - Finland. The Scandinavians have a reputation for being whizzkids at internet poker, and as far as Sweden, Denmark (and to a lesser extent Norway) are concerned, I have found this to be true. However Finnish players are horribly bad. I have yet to hit on a satisfactory reason why this is... a combination of the terribly strong vodka and 24 hour darkness at certain times of year driving the entire nation demented is probably the most likely explanation. It doesn't really surprise me though... the Finnish language is descended from Hungarian apparently, and they are nowhere near Hungary geographically, so I am resigned to nothing about Finland ever making sense.

Worst - Hungary. In my experience, these people don't even know which order the CARDS rank in, let alone the order of hand rankings. There must be some sort of ancient Hungarian text, a medieval version of "Super System" if you will, only with all the paragraphs written upside down and with all the words re-arranged, and everyone is forced to study it at school (obviously the Finns have recently translated this ancient "Istvan the Great on Holdem" tract too).

Note that I have left the USA off the list, even though some of the very worst players I have ever seen are American; this is because there are so many US players on the major poker sites, sheer weight of numbers and sample size dictates that some will be very very good and some will be very very bad, and that on the whole the average American's standard of play will be totally, well, average.

All comments, queries and accusations of xenophobia welcome :)

From Chip Leader to Rail...

I just played in one of those tournaments where the best hand pre-flop never held up after all the money went in. A $3 donkament, I was chip leader with 17 to go and went out in 15th after the ground trembled and opened up beneath me to engulf my stack. Two hands with KK in the big blind... first time I raise pre-flop over three limpers and the small blind calls... AJ7 flop and he donkshoves, I have to fold. Second time to finish me off, there is a raise from the button, small blind (same player) shoves, I call, button folds and KK < A7soooooted inevitably. In between, I jammed over a raise from a medium stack with 99 and he made a very speculative call for 18BB with KJo and out-raced me. Crunch. I really thought I was playing great and about to take it down too. C'est teh pokers, as the French would say. I did play well though.

This hand was funny... to me at least. I can't say I didn't have an occasional slice of luck in my favour:

http://www.pokerhandreplays.com/view.php/id/9332

Action should really have gone - SB raise, I shove, SB call... the bugger made me do all the work though, serves his lazy ass right.

I posted that hand to try and put things in perspective for myself, but it has failed, I'm still pissed off I didn't even make the final table of this thing. Should just flat-call pre-flop with KK in future so I can fold if an ace flops :)

PLOrly?

What with having to play an impromptu round of my club's tennis tournament, attending a family get-together in honor of Father's Day and the rare occasion (since Nick Faldo's peak) of an English golfer being in a genuine position to win a Major going into the final round, I didn't get to play much poker yesterday. But once Lee Westwood's final putt on the 18th faded agonisingly across the green at around 2am my time, I fired up the .10/.25 PLO tables again and had another winning session of around 1/2 a buy-in. Most of the profit came courtesy of the ironically named "Shipithere"; firstly he banged all his chips in on the flop with what he thought was a massive draw (two small clubs for a flush draw and KQ for an open-ended straight), but the 15 outs he thought he had were actually only 5 outs because along with my overpair I had a better flush draw and was holding two of the aces that made outs for his straight. Pwned. He left the table and returned 30 minutes later in a different seat, and promptly slowplayed a flopped set allowing me to hit a gutshot draw on the turn for the nut broadway straight. I think I love him.

Session ended when I got check/minraise on the river making a very thin value bet that may have been a bad idea (I had flopped the nut flush but the board paired on the turn, and he ultimately showed down a boat). I'm still undecided whether my value bet was spewy or ok, I think I get paid off by smaller flushes... but maybe checking behind would have been better. And his min-raise was so little relative to the pot that I felt it was worth calling (people had been going broke with weak flushes at this table with regularity), but again, maybe it was wrong. After this hand I looked at the clock and realised it was just beginning to get light again and perhaps this was a sign to get to bed.

So, that makes 3 PLO sessions and 3 winning sessions. Which is utterly, utterly irrelevant, I know, because a $50 win followed by a $25 loss is better than two $10 wins. But when you are feeling your way in the game like I am, it is nice to have some sort of consistency to your success; it breeds more confidence that I am actually doing a few things right.

Another day, another profit...

... of 20 cents. When I titled this blog "small stakes", I wasn't kidding!

I fired up a PLO table, because I have heard from others and also found for myself that the play there is very soft, softer even than low-stakes Hold'em tables. Unfortunately I didn't really hit many flops, but despite losing some money early I ended up ahead 14 big blinds over a short ~100 hand session (sounds better to say it that way instead of "$3.50", doesn't it?). The hand that made the difference was a blind on blind battle (what, a PLO table had everyone fold to the blinds?!?) where I raised with Ad Qd 9d 7s and got called, and hit a monster combo-draw on a Kc 10d 8d flop... 8 diamonds, 3 jacks, 3 sixes are all draws to the nuts for me, so I decide to get all the chips in and my opponent obliges. They show down a flopped two pair, and I am actually about 45:55 underdog when I thought I was a slight favorite, but I rivered a Jack to take the pot; my opponent gets the Sklansky dollars, I get the actual dollars. That was the only hand of any note that I even took to showdown.

I then fired up a $3+.30 turbo donkament, and the play was the worst I have ever seen. Mind you, I think that every time I play donkstakes on the weekends... the shock and disbelief at how horrible most of the play is hits me afresh every time. How does a line of "limp/call a raise of 100 UTG with 4-6sooooted, check/call for half the pot after flopping the bottom end of a gutshot draw, check/call a quarter pot bet on the turn unimproved, and check/muck the river" look to you? Is there a game lurking amidst his/her leaks?!?

Anyway, obviously I bomb out early... have AQ and AK within the first 10 hands, but get too many donks seeing a flop for me to consider c-betting when I whiff both times. Then I get QQ all-in pre-flop against AJo and (wait for it) K7suited (pot committed after their min-raise was re-raised and shoved over, obv *eyeroll*), and I'm out and really quite glad to be away from it. I know I should be happy to play against players like this, but srsly... it's just no fun. It's just not "proper" poker. In a cash game, it's a wet dream and bring them on by the dozen, but in tournaments, which are my bread and butter, you can't reload and stack them after they luck out against you; moreover, while they are guaranteed to give their chips away fairly swiftly, they only have one stack to give away and the odds are it will go to someone else, which not only doesn't benefit you but actively hurts you. Shouldn't grumble though, I'd rather they logged on and donated, I mean played, than not.

Early Double B recap (long)

As promised. I intend to download the animated hand replayer in the very near future for the sake of brevity, but for now it's just good old cut and paste with lots of text, apologies.

Tournament started slowly for me, then this beauty dropped in my lap -

Early Double - B (51673929), Table 86 - 25/50 - No Limit Hold'em
Seat 1: TehJeff (3,535)
Seat 2: mister carrow (4,985)
Seat 3: wheresURhelmet (7,660)
Seat 4: Topsushi (1,825)
Seat 5: martymc1 (1,875)
Seat 6: Mucking Ninja (1,930)
Seat 7: sfeedking (1,365)
Seat 8: Al1Fl (1,560)
Seat 9: TheAlbinoKid (2,100)
Al1Fl posts the small blind of 25
TheAlbinoKid posts the big blind of 50
The button is in seat #7
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to TheAlbinoKid [Ts Kc]
TehJeff folds
mister carrow calls 50
wheresURhelmet folds
Topsushi calls 50
martymc1 folds
Mucking Ninja folds
sfeedking calls 50
Al1Fl calls 25
TheAlbinoKid checks
*** FLOP *** [Kd Ks Kh] (I think I'm ahead lolz)
Al1Fl checks
TheAlbinoKid checks (such a static flop, even 5-way I'm not sure I get much action without letting someone catch up a bit)
mister carrow checks
Topsushi checks
sfeedking checks
*** TURN *** [Kd Ks Kh] [Qc]
Al1Fl checks
TheAlbinoKid bets 125
mister carrow calls 125
Topsushi folds

sfeedking folds
Al1Fl folds
*** RIVER *** [Kd Ks Kh Qc] [4h]
TheAlbinoKid bets 250
mister carrow calls 250
*** SHOW DOWN ***
TheAlbinoKid shows [Ts Kc] four of a kind, Kings
mister carrow mucks (he had 44)

TheAlbinoKid wins the pot (1,000) with four of a kind, Kings (not a big pot, but probably as much as I could have got)

Chipped up a bit more on the very next hand when I raised pre-flop with QQ, got called by the same player as Hand 1; he called a flop bet too on an all-unders board, but folded to turn bet on another blank card. That was pretty much it for the first hour, reached the break 205 of 432.

Then the same guy doubles me through by because he thinks having an Ace makes him unbeatable when actually he is drawing dead -

Early Double - B (51673929), Table 86 - 60/120 - No Limit Hold'em
Seat 1: TehJeff (3,050)
Seat 2: mister carrow (2,280)
Seat 3: wheresURhelmet (4,765)
Seat 4: Topsushi (7,300)
Seat 5: I am Cookn (1,885)
Seat 6: Mucking Ninja (1,660)
Seat 7: raskolnikov77 (11,220)
Seat 8: Al1Fl (11,970)
Seat 9: TheAlbinoKid (3,210)
wheresURhelmet posts the small blind of 60
Topsushi posts the big blind of 120
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to TheAlbinoKid [Ah Qh]
I am Cookn folds
mister carrow has returned
Mucking Ninja folds
raskolnikov77 folds
Al1Fl folds
TheAlbinoKid raises to 360
TehJeff folds
mister carrow calls 360
wheresURhelmet folds
Topsushi folds
*** FLOP *** [Ad 7d Qd]
TheAlbinoKid bets 700
mister carrow calls 700
*** TURN *** [Ad 7d Qd] [9c]
TheAlbinoKid bets 2,150, and is all in
mister carrow calls 1,220, and is all in
TheAlbinoKid shows [Ah Qh]
mister carrow shows [As 4c] (what, not even a diamond? ur so bad lol)
*** RIVER *** [Ad 7d Qd 9c] [Th]
TheAlbinoKid shows two pair, Aces and Queens
mister carrow shows a pair of Aces
TheAlbinoKid wins the pot (4,740) with two pair, Aces and Queens

Then I pick up another 3000 chips when it folds to me in the small blind with JJ and the big blind shoves over my raise with 77 and my hand holds up.

The next hand sends me soaring, I think this is probably the hand I am most pleased with from the tournament -

Early Double - B (51673929), Table 86 - 150/300 Ante 25 - No Limit Hold'em
Seat 1: Pot Pimp (4,560)
Seat 2: Don Frosty (2,070)
Seat 3: wheresURhelmet (5,285)
Seat 4: Topsushi (8,575)
Seat 5: I am Cookn (3,135)
Seat 6: mrgrill79 (6,880)
Seat 7: raskolnikov77 (7,080)
Seat 8: Al1Fl (10,885)
Seat 9: TheAlbinoKid (9,285)
Pot Pimp antes 25
Don Frosty antes 25
wheresURhelmet antes 25
Topsushi antes 25
I am Cookn antes 25
mrgrill79 antes 25
raskolnikov77 antes 25
Al1Fl antes 25
TheAlbinoKid antes 25
Don Frosty posts the small blind of 150
wheresURhelmet posts the big blind of 300
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to TheAlbinoKid [Qc Ac] (as soon as I see my cards and see that a very LAG player is in the big blind, I'm licking my lips at the thought of getting everything in pre-flop against his range)
Topsushi folds
I am Cookn folds
mrgrill79 folds
raskolnikov77 folds
Al1Fl raises to 775 (this guy is pretty tight, his presence forces a change in plans)
TheAlbinoKid calls 775 (I'm not thrilled about building a big pot here against Al1Fl's range despite having position on him, so I opt to just call for pot control; there is also a thought in my mind that the big blind may well try read it as weakness and try to squeeze us... he has shown a propensity to re-steal and make moves. If he does shove over us, I'm snap-calling unless the original raiser calls, in which case I have an easy fold with not much invested.)
Pot Pimp folds
Don Frosty folds
wheresURhelmet raises to 5,260, and is all in (bingo)
Al1Fl folds (bingo)
TheAlbinoKid calls 4,485
wheresURhelmet shows [Jc Th]
TheAlbinoKid shows [Qc Ac] (Trapping with AQ pre-flop FTW!)
*** FLOP *** [2d 9h 8d]
*** TURN *** [2d 9h 8d] [2h]
*** RIVER *** [2d 9h 8d 2h] [8s]
wheresURhelmet shows two pair, Eights and Twos
TheAlbinoKid shows two pair, Eights and Twos
TheAlbinoKid wins the pot (11,670) with two pair, Eights and Twos

Thoughts, if any? On the back of that, I am 27 of 180 at the second break, but the cards dry up and by the time the bubble bursts at 153rd place I have slipped to 39th. Maybe I am getting a little frustrated, because I make a pretty speculative re-steal play here and it blows up in my face -

Early Double - B (51673929), Table 71 - 250/500 Ante 50 - No Limit Hold'em
Seat 1: RAUL SALINA (3,037)
Seat 2: oldgreeneyz (3,265)
Seat 3: yellowhammers (12,232)
Seat 4: TheAlbinoKid (12,495)
Seat 5: Big BlingAA (5,410)
Seat 6: LCB81 (20,816)
Seat 7: blackflush714 (4,624)
Seat 8: est13 (6,000)
Seat 9: sinosono (10,565)
RAUL SALINA antes 50
oldgreeneyz antes 50
yellowhammers antes 50
TheAlbinoKid antes 50
Big BlingAA antes 50
LCB81 antes 50
blackflush714 antes 50
est13 antes 50
sinosono antes 50
TheAlbinoKid posts the small blind of 250
Big BlingAA posts the big blind of 500
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to TheAlbinoKid [Js 9s]
LCB81 folds
blackflush714 raises to 1,000
est13 folds
sinosono folds
RAUL SALINA folds
oldgreeneyz folds
yellowhammers folds
TheAlbinoKid raises to 12,445, and is all in
Big BlingAA folds
blackflush714 has requested TIME
blackflush714 calls 3,574, and is all in
TheAlbinoKid shows [Js 9s]
blackflush714 shows [Qh Kd]
*** FLOP *** [Ad Jh Kc]
*** TURN *** [Ad Jh Kc] [Th]
*** RIVER *** [Ad Jh Kc Th] [Ac]
TheAlbinoKid shows two pair, Aces and Jacks
blackflush714 shows a straight, Ace high
blackflush714 wins the pot (10,098) with a straight, Ace high

In retrospect, his stack size probably meant he wasn't folding very often here and I should have held fire. But he had been limp or min-raising whenever he entered a pot, and played very passively thereafter, generally showing a heavy reluctance to put his tournament life on the line without at least seeing a flop. I think he was the perfect opponent to make this move against, but maybe he needed to be a little deeper for it to be ideal. Is this horrible spew, or just a minor misjudgement? Or even a well-played hand?

So that hand dented me quite a bit, and my M dropped to pretty much shove or fold territory; but I got my chips back off the same guy when I open-shoved J10s and won a flip when he called from the small blind with 44. Another lull in action followed, before I had these hands two in close succession (both very standard on my part, 2nd one not very standard from villain!) -

Early Double - B (51673929), Table 71 - 400/800 Ante 100 - No Limit Hold'em
Seat 1: Victim_Child (28,541)
Seat 2: Bobby Poker A (16,361)
Seat 3: yellowhammers (12,625)
Seat 4: TheAlbinoKid (12,542)
Seat 5: Big BlingAA (10,620)
Seat 6: LCB81 (29,805)
Seat 7: blackflush714 (6,144)
Seat 8: BABYSU (39,253)
Seat 9: sinosono (9,333)
Victim_Child antes 100
Bobby Poker A antes 100
yellowhammers antes 100
TheAlbinoKid antes 100
Big BlingAA antes 100
LCB81 antes 100
blackflush714 antes 100
BABYSU antes 100
sinosono antes 100
Victim_Child posts the small blind of 400
Bobby Poker A posts the big blind of 800
The button is in seat #9
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to TheAlbinoKid [Ad Kd]
yellowhammers folds
TheAlbinoKid raises to 2,500
Big BlingAA folds
LCB81 folds
blackflush714 calls 2,500
BABYSU folds
sinosono folds
Victim_Child folds
Bobby Poker A folds
*** FLOP *** [Ts Td 6d]
TheAlbinoKid bets 9,942, and is all in
blackflush714 has requested TIME
blackflush714 folds
TheAlbinoKid mucks
TheAlbinoKid wins the pot (7,100)

Early Double - B (51673929), Table 71 - 500/1000 Ante 125 - No Limit Hold'em
Seat 1: Victim_Child (27,841)
Seat 2: Bobby Poker A (14,861)
Seat 3: yellowhammers (13,225)
Seat 4: TheAlbinoKid (16,042)
Seat 5: Big BlingAA (10,320)
Seat 6: LCB81 (31,605)
Seat 7: blackflush714 (3,344)
Seat 8: BABYSU (38,953)
Seat 9: sinosono (9,033)
Victim_Child antes 125
Bobby Poker A antes 125
yellowhammers antes 125
TheAlbinoKid antes 125
Big BlingAA antes 125
LCB81 antes 125
blackflush714 antes 125
BABYSU antes 125
sinosono antes 125
TheAlbinoKid posts the small blind of 500
Big BlingAA posts the big blind of 1,000
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to TheAlbinoKid [Jh As]
LCB81 folds
blackflush714 folds
BABYSU folds
sinosono folds
Victim_Child folds
Bobby Poker A folds
yellowhammers folds
TheAlbinoKid raises to 15,917, and is all in
Big BlingAA calls 9,195, and is all in
TheAlbinoKid shows [Jh As]
Big BlingAA shows [9d 8d] (if you think I'm bluffing, you have still have to be able to beat me, remember?)
*** FLOP *** [6c Kh Ad]
*** TURN *** [6c Kh Ad] [8h]
*** RIVER *** [6c Kh Ad 8h] [3c]
TheAlbinoKid shows a pair of Aces
Big BlingAA shows a pair of Eights
TheAlbinoKid wins the pot (21,515) with a pair of Aces

The flurry continues as the next hand I raise from the button with KJo, flop top pair when big blind calls and take down another ~4000 chip pot. Then just as I'm starting to feel good about life, I get all in pre-flop with KK against 77 and get sucked out on, and no sooner had I scrambled out of the middle of the field than I am back in it.

Then I have a tricky decision -

Early Double - B (51673929), Table 71 - 600/1200 Ante 150 - No Limit Hold'em
Seat 1: Victim_Child (21,541)
Seat 2: saintpimp (13,787)
Seat 3: strangehead (22,480)
Seat 4: TheAlbinoKid (17,804)
Seat 5: bombx (25,342)
Seat 6: playlikea10 (12,375)
Seat 7: blackflush714 (16,838)
Seat 8: BABYSU (47,183)
Seat 9: sinosono (44,332)
Victim_Child antes 150
saintpimp antes 150
strangehead antes 150
TheAlbinoKid antes 150
bombx antes 150
playlikea10 antes 150
blackflush714 antes 150
BABYSU antes 150
sinosono antes 150
TheAlbinoKid posts the small blind of 600
bombx posts the big blind of 1,200
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to TheAlbinoKid [9s 9c]
playlikea10 folds
blackflush714 calls 1,200
BABYSU calls 1,200
sinosono folds
Victim_Child folds
saintpimp raises to 13,637, and is all in
strangehead folds
TheAlbinoKid folds

With the two limpers (reads - neither likely to have limped a big hand), I'm planning to insta-jam this until saintpimp gets in first. I grumble and mutter and make a grudging fold, having lost the chance to take the initiative... correct, or does anyone gamble here? (blackflush714 does, because he calls the shove with Q10s obv, and knocks out saintpimp who has AKs... lol donkaments, and predictable table chat ensues.)

Last hand before the 3rd break makes my subsequent urination feel all the more sweet -

Early Double - B (51673929), Table 12 - 600/1200 Ante 150 - No Limit Hold'em
Seat 2: baaadbeet (12,928)
Seat 3: beckarmy (23,068)
Seat 4: tahall (73,117)
Seat 5: Ricki73 (27,682)
Seat 6: TheAlbinoKid (21,104)
Seat 7: blackflush714 (36,950)
Seat 8: GoneFishing88 (68,992)
Seat 9: SpenceDogg09 (41,014)
baaadbeet antes 150
beckarmy antes 150
tahall antes 150
Ricki73 antes 150
TheAlbinoKid antes 150
blackflush714 antes 150
GoneFishing88 antes 150
SpenceDogg09 antes 150
blackflush714 posts the small blind of 600
GoneFishing88 posts the big blind of 1,200
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to TheAlbinoKid [Ac Qs]
SpenceDogg09 folds
baaadbeet folds
beckarmy raises to 4,800
tahall folds
Ricki73 folds
TheAlbinoKid raises to 20,954, and is all in
blackflush714 folds
GoneFishing88 folds
beckarmy has requested TIME
beckarmy calls 16,154
TheAlbinoKid shows [Ac Qs]
beckarmy shows [Kd Jd] (pretty speculative with no reads on me)
*** FLOP *** [9d 5s 3s]
*** TURN *** [9d 5s 3s] [4s]
*** RIVER *** [9d 5s 3s 4s] [9h]
TheAlbinoKid shows a pair of Nines
beckarmy shows a pair of Nines
TheAlbinoKid wins the pot (44,908) with a pair of Nines

So I hit the 3rd break 14 of 44, and starting to get pretty psyched. After we resume, I chip up a little more, then this really gay and funny hand happens -

Early Double - B (51673929), Table 12 - 1000/2000 Ante 250 - No Limit Hold'em
Seat 1: Kyle1133 (48,900)
Seat 2: baaadbeet (7,428)
Seat 4: tahall (55,367)
Seat 5: Ricki73 (9,582)
Seat 6: TheAlbinoKid (49,358)
Seat 7: blackflush714 (64,450)
Seat 8: GoneFishing88 (93,417)
Seat 9: SpenceDogg09 (47,278)
Kyle1133 antes 250
baaadbeet antes 250
tahall antes 250
Ricki73 antes 250
TheAlbinoKid antes 250
blackflush714 antes 250
GoneFishing88 antes 250
SpenceDogg09 antes 250
TheAlbinoKid posts the small blind of 1,000
blackflush714 posts the big blind of 2,000
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to TheAlbinoKid [Kh 5h]
GoneFishing88 folds
SpenceDogg09 folds
Kyle1133 folds
baaadbeet folds
tahall folds
Ricki73 folds
TheAlbinoKid raises to 6,000 (I is stealing)
blackflush714 calls 4,000
*** FLOP *** [Ts Qs 8s]
TheAlbinoKid checks (I decide to just abort now that he has got stubborn... this flop hits a big chunk of his range, it's all his... is this too weak?)
blackflush714 checks
*** TURN *** [Ts Qs 8s] [7c]
TheAlbinoKid checks (it's still all his if he wants it)
blackflush714 checks
*** RIVER *** [Ts Qs 8s 7c] [5s]
TheAlbinoKid checks (too late to bet now, wouldn't it be funny if that 5 made me the best hand!!)
blackflush714 checks
*** SHOW DOWN ***
TheAlbinoKid shows [Kh 5h] a pair of Fives
blackflush714 mucks (he had A3o, both red... lol fifthpairaments)
TheAlbinoKid wins the pot (14,000) with a pair of Fives

I then KO a shorty when he shoves for about 3 big blinds and I call with A10o and have his A8o dominated... takes me to 8 of 30, and I'm sniffing the final table. I then move tables again, to find myself sat two seats to the left of Worm646898645675476 (or something), a fellow Cardplayer-ite... two of us in the final 30, and no "Going Deeeeeeeep" thread on the forum? We're slacking. I decline his offer of a last-longer bet because I don't want to jinx it... very poor decision on my part because I'm obviously the superior player ;)

Anyway, the new table has the chip leader on it, and he seems to be playing very loose and running in God mode. Obviously I get dealt half a hand (KJo) in middle position on his big blind, he calls and then donks into me on a AdQd8s flop. I'm just dying to shove over his donk bet, but common sense gets the better of me and I let the crazy take it. I then get moved from his table again (Worm is moved with me), and have this nice little suck-out when a re-steal goes wrong and comes right again -

Early Double - B (51673929), Table 12 - 2500/5000 Ante 600 - No Limit Hold'em
Seat 1: Kyle1133 (91,232)
Seat 2: BiggEMan (65,112)
Seat 3: General Sleven (177,917)
Seat 5: BadtheBeater (50,919)
Seat 6: worm96762005 (42,386)
Seat 7: blackflush714 (198,287)
Seat 8: GoneFishing88 (71,592)
Seat 9: TheAlbinoKid (46,736)
Kyle1133 antes 600
BiggEMan antes 600
General Sleven antes 600
BadtheBeater antes 600
worm96762005 antes 600
blackflush714 antes 600
GoneFishing88 antes 600
TheAlbinoKid antes 600
TheAlbinoKid posts the small blind of 2,500
Kyle1133 posts the big blind of 5,000
The button is in seat #8
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to TheAlbinoKid [Tc Qc]
BiggEMan folds
General Sleven folds
BadtheBeater folds
worm96762005 folds
blackflush714 folds
GoneFishing88 raises to 13,500
TheAlbinoKid raises to 46,136, and is all in
Kyle1133 folds
GoneFishing88 calls 32,636
TheAlbinoKid shows [Tc Qc]
GoneFishing88 shows [Jd As]
*** FLOP *** [3h 6h Ts]
*** TURN *** [3h 6h Ts] [Ks]
*** RIVER *** [3h 6h Ts Ks] [Td]
TheAlbinoKid shows three of a kind, Tens
GoneFishing88 shows a pair of Tens
TheAlbinoKid wins the pot (102,072) with three of a kind, Tens

Pretty standard really, no? I then improve even more with a pretty gutsy call on a hand that my inner nit was yelling at me to fold -

Early Double - B (51673929), Table 12 - 2500/5000 Ante 600 - No Limit Hold'em
Seat 1: Kyle1133 (89,932)
Seat 2: BiggEMan (58,912)
Seat 3: General Sleven (176,717)
Seat 5: BadtheBeater (49,719)
Seat 6: worm96762005 (41,186)
Seat 7: blackflush714 (197,087)
Seat 8: GoneFishing88 (29,156)
Seat 9: TheAlbinoKid (101,472)
Kyle1133 antes 600
BiggEMan antes 600
General Sleven antes 600
BadtheBeater antes 600
worm96762005 antes 600
blackflush714 antes 600
GoneFishing88 antes 600
TheAlbinoKid antes 600
BiggEMan posts the small blind of 2,500
General Sleven posts the big blind of 5,000
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to TheAlbinoKid [9s 9d]
BadtheBeater folds
worm96762005 folds
blackflush714 folds
GoneFishing88 folds
TheAlbinoKid raises to 15,000
Kyle1133 folds
BiggEMan raises to 58,312, and is all in
General Sleven folds
TheAlbinoKid calls 43,312
BiggEMan shows [7s As]
TheAlbinoKid shows [9s 9d]
*** FLOP *** [3d Kh 8c]
*** TURN *** [3d Kh 8c] [4s]
*** RIVER *** [3d Kh 8c 4s] [9h]
BiggEMan shows Ace King high
TheAlbinoKid shows three of a kind, Nines
TheAlbinoKid wins the pot (126,424) with three of a kind, Nines
worm96762005: nh (yeah, you knows it baby!)

That pushes me to 5 of 15, and at the next break I am 5 of 12 (Worm has busted in 14th, blinds were hot on his heels and he had to push a weak ace which was called by a marginally less weak ace... nice run though). First hand back, I catch a nice free flop from the big blind with 8d3d (Ad Jd 8c for bottom pair with a flush draw) and take a nice pot with a flop raise. This hand made me feel a bit sick though -

Early Double - B (51673929), Table 12 - 3000/6000 Ante 750 - No Limit Hold'em
Seat 1: Kyle1133 (90,832)
Seat 3: General Sleven (216,577)
Seat 5: BadtheBeater (60,297)
Seat 7: blackflush714 (162,787)
Seat 8: sickallkris (82,368)
Seat 9: TheAlbinoKid (174,084)
Kyle1133 antes 750
General Sleven antes 750
BadtheBeater antes 750
blackflush714 antes 750
sickallkris antes 750
TheAlbinoKid antes 750
BadtheBeater posts the small blind of 3,000
blackflush714 posts the big blind of 6,000
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to TheAlbinoKid [Jh Jd]
sickallkris folds
TheAlbinoKid raises to 18,000
Kyle1133 folds
General Sleven has 15 seconds left to act
General Sleven raises to 48,000
BadtheBeater folds
blackflush714 folds
TheAlbinoKid folds
Uncalled bet of 30,000 returned to General Sleven
General Sleven mucks
General Sleven wins the pot (49,500)

Is that as ultra-weak as it felt? I don't like calling out of position, and I don't like shoving and praying I'm a slight favorite in a race when I am in good shape. My reads are confused on the re-raiser; he has just woken up and started to get quite active in the last orbit, but hasn't shown any hands down yet, so I don't know if he is switching gears or just getting a good run of cards. Is this one of those situations where if I want to win the tournament I have to take the chance in a death or glory kind of way, or is my feeling that this is a risk I don't need to take justified?

Anyway, I made it to the final table 6th in chips, with a predictably bad draw of the two big chip leaders immediately on the left, the God mode donk from before and General Sleven from the last hand I posted. Within 4 hands, we are down to 7 as AA shows it's head twice and knocks out two players with smaller pocket pairs. Then it's my turn to step into the limelight -

Early Double - B (51673929), Table 93 - 5000/10000 Ante 1000 - No Limit Hold'em
Seat 2: sinosono (76,328)
Seat 3: BadtheBeater (277,451)
Seat 4: ronald93 (171,113)
Seat 5: SpenceDogg09 (143,356)
Seat 6: TheAlbinoKid (109,584)
Seat 7: General Sleven (402,910)
Seat 8: Anthonym33 (529,258)
sinosono antes 1,000
BadtheBeater antes 1,000
ronald93 antes 1,000
SpenceDogg09 antes 1,000
TheAlbinoKid antes 1,000
General Sleven antes 1,000
Anthonym33 antes 1,000
TheAlbinoKid posts the small blind of 5,000
General Sleven posts the big blind of 10,000
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to TheAlbinoKid [Qd Ah]
Anthonym33 folds
sinosono raises to 75,328, and is all in
BadtheBeater folds
ronald93 folds
SpenceDogg09 folds
TheAlbinoKid raises to 108,584, and is all in
General Sleven folds
TheAlbinoKid shows [Qd Ah]
sinosono shows [9s Ac]
*** FLOP *** [Td 9h 8c] (fuck fuck fuck fhsdfgsdgfj)
*** TURN *** [Td 9h 8c] [Kh]
*** RIVER *** [Td 9h 8c Kh] [2d]
TheAlbinoKid shows Ace King high
sinosono shows a pair of Nines
sinosono wins the pot (167,656) with a pair of Nines

That really bummed me out... I always run badly at final tables, who knows why. It felt inevitable, I didn't even have it in me to type "QJQJQJQJQJQJQJQJQJ ASFGAFGSDJKFGKSDGK" into the chat box after the flop to try and will the re-suckout home. Sinosono must have had my number... he is the same guy who sucked out on my KK with 77 earlier on. Better lucky than good I guess (to be fair, both hands he played fine).

So, left with an M of ~1.5, I'm always getting called by the big stacks on my left so I'm pretty much dead in the water barring a miracle. Rather than pray for a big hand in the 5 hands before my big blind comes round again, I opt to push with 67o on the grounds that my cards should be live and I will most likely have ~40% chance against whatever calls me. Of course the chip leader calls with A7s, so there goes that theory, and there goes Albino. $127.50 better off for a $6 buy-in is good, but I feel short-changed again, like most final tables. Oh well, best not be greedy.

Thanks for reading, even if you only skimmed.

Finally, a deep run in a decent size tournament

Today my poker has been limited to just the two Early Double tournaments on Full Tilt... wanted to play all evening after I got home but my sister asked me to help her move some stuff to her flat, so I agreed, and didn't commit myself to any tournaments that could run for ages. She then kept texting to say she was delayed, we'd do it in a bit, she was on her way over any minute etc etc, and eventually ended by saying "we'll do it another night actually." Correction missy - YOU will do it another night, since you've had me sat twiddling my thumbs all evening when I wanted to be twiddling chips. Grrrrr.

So once again I am on minor life-tilt when I fire up the tables (only about 6.5 on the tilt-o-meter this time I would say... last night was a solid 9), but what do you know, I only went and made the final table of Early Double B. 855 runners, $5000 prize pool... unfortunately I continued my trend of also running terribly at final tables and only finished 7th, for what feels like a relatively meagre $127.50. But I'm grateful for what I can get I guess. I'm not even sure I played all that well to be honest... I made some good, brave calls but also some very timid folds. I plan on posting a full(ish) recap tomorrow sometime, there are a few hands I would like some input on.

For now, here are 2 hands from Early Double A I'm not 100% sure of. I finished 317th of ~870 in this one, never really got going and came out on the wrong side of a race with 1010 vs KQo.

Hand 1 -

Early Double - A (51673765), Table 38 - 20/40 - No Limit Hold'em
Seat 1: StripMyMind17 (3,485)
Seat 2: TheAlbinoKid (1,940)
Seat 4: I am Cookn (2,430)
Seat 5: Jester279 (1,510)
Seat 6: matty711 (2,360)
Seat 7: Frost 71 (1,815)
Seat 8: UrMyJob01 (4,625)
Seat 9: 2outsMUCKgget (1,805)
StripMyMind17 posts the small blind of 20
TheAlbinoKid posts the big blind of 40
The button is in seat #9
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to TheAlbinoKid [Jd Js]
I am Cookn folds
Jester279 folds
matty711 calls 40
Frost 71 folds
UrMyJob01 calls 40
2outsMUCKgget folds
StripMyMind17 calls 20
TheAlbinoKid raises to 240 (only the 2nd time I have voluntarily put chips in the pot in the 25 minutes we have been playing)
matty711 calls 200
UrMyJob01 calls 200 (and they all call anyway, obv)
StripMyMind17 folds
*** FLOP *** [Kc 2c 4c]
TheAlbinoKid bets 440
matty711 calls 440
UrMyJob01 folds
*** TURN *** [Kc 2c 4c] [7s]
TheAlbinoKid checks
matty711 bets 1,680, and is all in
TheAlbinoKid folds

Is c-betting this flop spewy with two others in the hand? I figure I take it down often enough for it to be ok, but it's close, and if anyone can suggest why I should be check/folding here, I'm all ears. I also tried to talk myself into shoving the blank turn card, but on reflection there is just no need to risk it and we probably aren't making enough weak top pair hands fold or getting called by enough hands with a naked club often enough to justify it.

Hand 2 (just two hands after Hand 1) -

Early Double - A (51673765), Table 38 - 20/40 - No Limit Hold'em
Seat 1: StripMyMind17 (3,445)
Seat 2: TheAlbinoKid (1,240)
Seat 3: Rommaren (1,640)
Seat 4: I am Cookn (2,430)
Seat 5: Jester279 (1,510)
Seat 6: matty711 (3,040)
Seat 7: Frost 71 (1,815)
Seat 8: UrMyJob01 (4,385)
Seat 9: 2outsMUCKgget (2,145)
Rommaren posts the small blind of 20
I am Cookn posts the big blind of 40
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to TheAlbinoKid [5c 5h]
Jester279 folds
matty711 raises to 120
Frost 71 folds
UrMyJob01 folds
2outsMUCKgget folds
StripMyMind17 folds
TheAlbinoKid (OTB) raises to 1,240, and is all in

Too aggressive? The UTG+1 raiser was rapidly proving himself to be a bit of a donk; on the one hand, this meant that my fold equity probably wasn't as high as I needed it to be to really make me happy about this shove; on the other hand, I am probably in pretty good shape against his raise/calling range as a whole, (even from early position, because I doubt he knows what position is), good enough shape that I don't think I really need as much fold equity as usual to make this slightly +EV. I confess, a small element of "what the hey, I don't feel like nursing a short stack for ages to try and grind back into this" might have come into my decision too, but I still suspect my play might have been fractionally +EV. Agree/disagree? Would a smaller re-raise be better? If so, how are we a) dealing with a shove and b) approaching the flop if he calls?

Yeah, really don't play when you're annoyed

At least it was only one $3 donk buy-in I wasted by firing up a PLO tourny. Early stages were a roller-coaster; on hand 3 I made a stupid semi-bluff raise with Jd Jh 8h 9s on a Qc 8c 5s flop... it was about as weak a draw as there is, and at these stakes nobody who likes their hand enough to bet it is ever folding to a raise, EVER. So 3 hands in and I've made probably my worst play of the past month, and I just know I should have gone to bed.

2 hands later, I flop a big draw out of the big blind with Ad 3d Qh 2h on a board of 4d Qs 5h... I bet it and 4 of the 5 people call, obv. I whiff, check the turn for a free river and whiff again. That's 1/3 of the chips gone.

2 hands later (this is the still only the 7th hand of the tournament lolz) I catch a break. I see a family flop with Ah 7h 7s 5c and hit middle set. All the chips go in with a villain who shows Ac 4c 8s 9d for a nut flush draw and open-ended straight draw and has me very worried. I dodge good and double through, and my chip stack grows enough to take me into the top 20 of the 105 man field.

Then hand 10 is my doom. After a lot of limpers pre-flop, I pot it with As Ac 8c Jd and thin the field... to four callers! Flop comes 8s 8d 3d, and I'm only behind a 33xx hand. I get all the chips in against a guy who shows the case 8 with a King kicker, but he also has two diamonds which make him a flush on the turn and I fail to suck out on the river.

My last 600 chips last me a couple more orbits while I wait for a hand to take a stand with... eventually I bomb out in 58th when I flop top pair with a weak flush draw and get called by a higher flush draw. Obv when I don't want to catch my flush, I do.

So, some bad luck, some bad play, and as predicted I am pretty annoyed at myself for playing and playing badly when I knew I should just go to bad. The part of me that knew I shouldn't have played is feeling pretty smug though, so I guess it's time to let that part of my schizophrenia dominate. It's called learning from our mistakes I think.

To play or not to play when life-tilting?

Ok, I just had the suckiest evening playing tennis imaginable... I swear I played worse tonight than I did the first time I ever picked up a racket. Speaking of rackets, one is now a crumpled heap of metal and strings... ho hum. A tennis court is perhaps the only area of life where I struggle to contain my temper and frustrations; I'm not a naturally volatile person, but for some reason my instinct when choking an easy backhand into the bottom of the net is to shout a string of expletives and hit something very hard.

So basically, I am in far too foul a mood to play poker, but I really really want to. If I play and lose money, even if it is only by getting coolered, I'll be even more annoyed at myself for playing while on life tilt, but the urge is strong. I've had a bath to try and relax, I have undertaken a series of ritual movements designed to get me in touch with my inner Zen master (ie. had a very angry wank), I think I'm going to risk opening my wallet for a bit. Part of me is saying "no Dan, it's a leak to play if you don't think you will play well", and part is saying "just open the fucking tables already, time is money". Inevitably, I will listen to the voice that uses profanity, it just makes it's case so much more compelling...

Bland intro

Ok, so I finally bowed to the inevitable and started a poker blog. All the cool kids have them (and Rambler has one too), so why not me? Well, probably because I won't have an awful lot of interest to say, but that doesn't stop everyone else so I'm going to ignore that minor inconvenience too.

About my poker life:

I've been playing on and off for about 5 years, but have only really started taking the game semi-seriously in the past year. I have always been a winning player even early on, simply through being naturally nitty and playing with morons who didn't realise I always had the goods and paid me off... but I have only really played WELL for the last 12 months. In fact, in light of recent adjustments I have made then maybe even 12 months is a generous estimation... I'll go into that in more detail sometime soon.

I mostly play low buy-in Hold'em MTTs at the moment... I had a spell from January to April where I played almost exclusively single table SNGs at the $5 level (and a few at $10) and ground my modest bankroll into 4 figures. Then I started to find the format very drab and mechanical, and that feeling, combined with some sustained bad running when I moved up to $10 stakes, led to me taking the rest of April and most of May off from poker. The only time I logged onto Full Tilt was to cash out $700 to help pay for a trip I booked to New Yoik and Boston in September, but the next day I jumped back on the horse with my $250 bankroll and started to play donk-stakes MTTs again ($2 to $5 buy-ins lolz), just for fun. That was 3 weeks ago, and as of now my roll is back up to ~$550, thanks to a more aggressive approach I have been taking and some nice run of the cards.

I've also dabbled with Omaha and HOSE/HORSE MTTs for the first time in the past few weeks, with some success; I attribute this to beginner's luck and the inability of most of the other players to tell a good hand from junk. I also played an Omaha Hi cash table for the first time last night (.10/.25 PL) on the theory that the play would be very soft. I finished up just under a buy-in, which was nice... I look forward to playing some more of that. I always want to work on my cash game play, because I know that is where the consistent money is to be made (ok, grinding at SNGs works consistently too, but booooo YAWNaments), but I often seem to struggle to make good decisions on the turn and river and can feel myself leaking chips more than I ought to; also I have a tough time fighting against my natural nittish-ness, a problem that I don't have in MTTs due to the increasing blinds. But I will work on that.

If you read this far, welcome. If you didn't, I don't blame you, and welcome.